2004–05 Scottish Premier League

The 2004–05 Scottish Premier League was won by Rangers, who claimed the title on the final day of the season by a single point from Celtic, who had gone into the final fixtures leading and were still ahead in the closing minutes of their last game against Motherwell until they conceded two goals (both scored by striker Scott McDonald),^[1] costing them the title with Rangers winning their match against Hibernian in Edinburgh.^[2] The dramatic events became known in popular culture as 'Helicopter Sunday' due to the aircraft ceremonially delivering the championship trophy changing direction in mid-flight as the identity of its winners altered suddenly.^[3]

Scottish Premier League

Season	2004–05
Dates	6 August 2004 – 21 May 2005
Champions	Rangers 4th Premier League title 51st Scottish title
Champions League	Rangers Celtic
UEFA Cup	Hibernian Dundee United
Intertoto Cup	None
Matches played	228
Goals scored	595 (2.61 per match)
Top goalscorer	John Hartson (25)
Biggest home win	Celtic 6–0 Dunfermline (12 March)
Biggest away win	Livingston 0–4 Celtic (13 April)
← 2003–04 2005–06 →

As league champions, Rangers qualified for the UEFA Champions League group stage, with runners-up Celtic also qualifying to the third qualifying round. Third-placed Hibernian qualified for the UEFA Cup, as did Dundee United, who took the Scottish Cup place despite losing the final to Celtic.

Dundee were relegated, and Scottish First Division winners Falkirk were promoted.

John Hartson was the top scorer with 25 goals for Celtic, whose manager Martin O'Neill stepped down at the end of the season after five years and a host of major trophies.

Teams

Promotion and relegation from 2003–04

Promoted from First Division to Premier League

• Inverness Caledonian Thistle

Relegated from Premier League to First Division

• Partick Thistle

Stadia and locations

Aberdeen	Celtic	Dundee	Dundee United
Pittodrie Stadium	Celtic Park	Dens Park	Tannadice Park
Capacity: 20,866[4]	Capacity: 60,411[5]	Capacity: 11,506[6]	Capacity: 14,223[7]
Dunfermline Athletic	Aberdeen Dundee Dundee United Dunfermline Athletic Hearts Hibernian Inverness Caledonian Thistle Kilmarnock Livingston Rangers Celtic Motherwell Location of teams in 2004–05 Scottish Premier League		Heart of Midlothian
East End Park			Tynecastle Park
Capacity: 12,509[8]			Capacity: 17,420[9]
Hibernian			Inverness Caledonian Thistle
Easter Road			Caledonian Stadium[10]
Capacity: 16,531[11]			Capacity: 7,500[12]
Kilmarnock	Livingston	Motherwell	Rangers
Rugby Park	Almondvale Stadium	Fir Park	Ibrox Stadium
Capacity: 17,889[13]	Capacity: 10,016[14]	Capacity: 13,677[15]	Capacity: 50,817[16]

Personnel

Team	Manager
Aberdeen	Jimmy Calderwood
Celtic	Martin O'Neill
Dundee	Jim Duffy
Dundee United	Gordon Chisholm
Dunfermline Athletic	Jim Leishman
Heart of Midlothian	Steven Pressley John McGlynn (joint caretakers)
Hibernian	Tony Mowbray
Inverness Caledonian Thistle	Craig Brewster
Kilmarnock	Jim Jefferies
Livingston	Richard Gough
Motherwell	Terry Butcher
Rangers	Alex McLeish

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Date of vacancy	Manner of departure	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Aberdeen	Steve Paterson	24 May 2004	Sacked	Pre-season	Jimmy Calderwood	28 May 2004
Dunfermline Athletic	Jimmy Calderwood	28 May 2004	Signed by Aberdeen		David Hay	17 June 2004
Livingston	David Hay	1 June 2004	Contract Expired		Allan Preston	4 June 2004
Heart of Midlothian	Craig Levein	29 October 2004	Signed by Leicester City	6th	John Robertson	3 November 2004
Inverness Caledonian Thistle	John Robertson	3 November 2004	Signed by Heart of Midlothian	9th	Craig Brewster	25 November 2004
Livingston	Allan Preston	25 November 2004	Sacked	12th	Richard Gough	30 November 2004
Dundee United	Ian McCall	14 March 2005	Sacked	12th	Gordon Chisholm	14 March 2005 (interim) 14 May 2005 (permanent)
Dunfermline Athletic	David Hay	3 May 2005	Sacked	12th	Jim Leishman	3 May 2005
Heart of Midlothian	John Robertson	9 May 2005	Sacked	5th	Steven Pressley John McGlynn (joint caretakers)	11 May 2005

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation[a]
1	Rangers (C)	38	29	6	3	78	22	+56	93	Qualification for the Champions League third qualifying round
2	Celtic	38	30	2	6	85	35	+50	92	Qualification for the Champions League second qualifying round
3	Hibernian	38	18	7	13	64	57	+7	61	Qualification for the UEFA Cup first round
4	Aberdeen	38	18	7	13	44	39	+5	61
5	Heart of Midlothian	38	13	11	14	43	41	+2	50
6	Motherwell	38	13	9	16	46	49	−3	48
7	Kilmarnock	38	15	4	19	49	55	−6	49
8	Inverness Caledonian Thistle	38	11	11	16	41	47	−6	44
9	Dundee United	38	8	12	18	41	59	−18	36	Qualification for the UEFA Cup second qualifying round[b]
10	Livingston	38	9	8	21	34	61	−27	35
11	Dunfermline Athletic	38	8	10	20	34	60	−26	34
12	Dundee (R)	38	8	9	21	37	71	−34	33	Relegation to the Scottish First Division

Source: Scottish Professional Football League
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Teams played each other three times (33 matches), before the league split into two groups (the top six and the bottom six) for the last five matches.
2. As Celtic, the 2004–05 Scottish Cup winners, qualified for the UEFA Champions League via their league position, the place in the UEFA Cup was passed onto Dundee United, the cup runners-up.

Results

Matches 1–22

During matches 1–22 each team played every other team twice (home and away).

Home \ Away	ABE	CEL	DND	DUN	DNF	HOM	HIB	INV	KIL	LIV	MOT	RAN
Aberdeen		0–1	1–1	1–0	2–1	0–1	0–1	0–0	3–2	2–0	2–1	0–0
Celtic	2–3		3–0	1–0	3–0	3–0	2–1	3–0	2–1	2–1	2–0	1–0
Dundee	1–0	2–2		1–0	1–2	0–1	1–4	3–1	3–1	0–0	1–2	0–2
Dundee United	1–1	0–3	1–2		1–2	1–1	1–4	2–1	3–0	1–0	0–1	1–1
Dunfermline Athletic	0–1	0–2	3–1	1–1		1–0	1–1	1–1	4–1	0–0	1–1	1–2
Heart of Midlothian	0–0	0–2	3–0	3–2	3–0		2–1	1–0	3–0	0–0	0–1	0–0
Hibernian	2–1	2–2	4–4	2–0	2–1	1–1		2–1	0–1	2–1	1–0	0–1
Inverness Caledonian Thistle	1–3	1–3	2–1	1–1	2–0	1–1	1–2		0–2	2–0	1–1	1–1
Kilmarnock	0–1	2–4	3–1	5–2	1–0	1–1	3–1	2–2		1–3	2–0	0–1
Livingston	0–2	2–4	1–0	1–1	2–0	1–2	0–2	3–0	0–2		2–3	1–4
Motherwell	0–0	2–3	3–0	4–2	2–1	2–0	1–2	1–2	0–1	2–0		0–2
Rangers	5–0	2–0	3–0	1–1	3–0	3–2	4–1	1–0	2–0	4–0	4–1

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Matches 23–33

During matches 23–33 each team played every other team once (either at home or away).

Home \ Away	ABE	CEL	DND	DUN	DNF	HOM	HIB	INV	KIL	LIV	MOT	RAN
Aberdeen			1–1				3–0			2–0	1–3	1–2
Celtic	3–2		3–0		6–0	0–2					2–0	0–2
Dundee					2–1	1–1			1–0	0–1	2–1	0–2
Dundee United	1–2	2–3	2–2			2–1		1–1
Dunfermline Athletic	2–1			1–1		1–1	1–4				0–0	0–1
Heart of Midlothian	1–0						1–2	0–2	3–0	3–1		1–2
Hibernian		1–3	4–0	3–2					3–0	0–3
Inverness Caledonian Thistle	0–1	0–2	3–2		2–0		3–0				1–0
Kilmarnock	0–1	0–1		3–0	2–1			0–1
Livingston		0–4		0–2	1–1			1–4	3–1		1–1
Motherwell				2–0		2–0	1–1		1–1			2–3
Rangers				0–1			3–0	1–1	2–1	3–0

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Matches 34–38

During matches 34–38 each team played every other team in their half of the table once.

Top six Home \ Away ABE CEL HOM HIB MOT RAN Aberdeen 2–0 1–3 Celtic 2–0 1–3 Heart of Midlothian 1–2 0–0 Hibernian 1–2 2–2 0–1 Motherwell 0–1 2–1 2–2 Rangers 1–2 2–1 4–1 Source: [citation needed] Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Bottom six Home \ Away DND DUN DNF INV KIL LIV Dundee 1–2 1–1 Dundee United 0–1 1–1 1–1 Dunfermline Athletic 5–0 0–0 Inverness Caledonian Thistle 0–1 1–2 0–1 Kilmarnock 1–0 4–0 2–0 Livingston 1–1 2–0 Source: [citation needed] Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top scorers

Scorer	Club	Goals
John Hartson	Celtic	25
Derek Riordan	Hibernian	20
Nacho Novo	Rangers	19
Dado Pršo	Rangers	18
Kris Boyd	Kilmarnock	17
Scott McDonald	Motherwell	15
Garry O'Connor	Hibernian	14
Steve Lovell	Dundee	12
Chris Sutton	Celtic	12
Darren Mackie	Aberdeen	12
Stiliyan Petrov	Celtic	11
Paul Hartley	Hearts	11

Source: SPL official website

Attendances

The average attendances for SPL clubs during the 2004–05 season are shown below:

Team	Average
Celtic	57,906
Rangers	48,676
Aberdeen	13,576
Hibernian	12,541
Hearts	12,219
Dundee United	8,210
Motherwell	6,960
Dundee	6,879
Dunfermline Athletic	6,192
Kilmarnock	5,930
Livingston	5,157
Inverness CT	4,067

Source: SPL official website

Monthly awards

Main article: Scottish Premier League monthly awards

Month	Manager	Player	Young Player
August	Jimmy Calderwood (Aberdeen)	Alan Thompson (Celtic)	Alexander Diamond (Aberdeen)
September	Terry Butcher (Motherwell)	Scott McDonald (Motherwell)	Derek Riordan (Hibernian)
October	John Robertson (Inverness CT)	Fernando Ricksen (Rangers)	Steven Fletcher (Hibernian)
November	Alex McLeish (Rangers)	Nacho Novo (Rangers)	Derek Riordan (Hibernian)
December	Tony Mowbray (Hibernian)	Aiden McGeady (Celtic)	Derek Riordan (Hibernian)
January	Martin O'Neill (Celtic)	Chris Sutton (Celtic)	Derek Riordan (Hibernian)
February	Alex McLeish (Rangers)	Dado Pršo (Rangers)	Lee Miller (Hearts)
March	Craig Brewster (Inverness CT)	Craig Bellamy (Celtic)	Aiden McGeady (Celtic)
April	Gordon Chisholm (Dundee United)	Burton O'Brien (Livingston)	Lee Miller (Hearts)
May	Tony Mowbray (Hibernian)	Dado Pršo (Rangers)	Derek Riordan (Hibernian)